Our approach

Islington Council’s ambition for 2030 is to create a more equal future for Islington, where everyone who lives here is able to thrive.

As part of our work, we have committed to eliminating discrimination, valuing diversity and looking for opportunities to build community cohesion in everything we do. 

How we do this

We monitor and address unequal outcomes for different equality groups and on the basis of socio-economic status. We do this by:  

• Setting equalities objectives, which aim to address some of the main areas of inequality in Islington. Read more about our current Equalities Objectives. 
• Using evidence to help us to design services. We monitor equality data to help us to ensure everyone gets equal access to our services.
• Completing Resident Impact Assessments (RIAs) to systematically consider the impact of our decisions on different protected groups. The council publishes all major RIAs on our website. 

Our legal duty

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010) the council has a duty to consider or think about how our policies or decisions affect people who are protected under the Equality Act. We need to show ‘due regard’ to the need to: 

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
• Foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it. 

Public bodies must publish information to show that they are meeting this duty by considering how their activities as employers and service providers affect people who share different protected characteristics. 

This includes age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation. The council has also committed to considering socio-economic status in support of our drive towards fairness.  

Islington Council demonstrates ‘due regard’ of the three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty by carrying out Resident Impact Assessments. 

State of Equalities reporting

The State of Equalities report breaks down Islington’s population in terms of its diversity and other protected characteristics. This gives us a snapshot of the inequalities that exist in Islington, to see what we are doing well, and what areas need improvement. The results are used by the council and its partners to inform service planning, provision and delivery. The council’s priority is to make Islington a fairer place where everyone has access to the same opportunities, whatever their background or situation and the State of Equalities report is an important tool supporting us to achieve this.

State of Equalities report 2023 (PDF)

You can also read the reports from 2022, 2021, and 2019. 

Equality for our employees

We have adopted a range of policies, procedures and systems which focus on our commitment to equality of opportunity and to ensuring the dignity at work of all our employees. These include supporting flexible working, so that a balance can be achieved between family commitments and professional aspirations and payment of the London Living Wage, as a minimum. 

Recent analysis undertaken to compile our Pay Gap Report shows that we have a good representation of women at senior levels. It also points to other areas where we could do better and we are taking action to improve on those.

Accessing information from the council

It is our priority to ensure that all residents have the information they need about our services, in a way which they can understand. Our website has been designed to be accessible and usable for everyone who visits and is compatible with all modern accessibility technology.

Residents can request information from the council in a range of different formats (e.g. translations, British Sign Language, large print, easy read).

For more about the different formats and to request a translation visit the accessibility pages or you can email us equalities@islington.gov.uk